A particularly vexing problem with collated nails is the problem of flagging. The flagging problem can be especially troublesome with nails that have been collated by means of tapes extending across and being adhesively adhered to the shanks of the nails.
Flagging occurs when a fragment of tape becomes caught under the head of a nail driven from a strip of collated nails into a workpiece by means of a rapidly acting, nail-driving tool, such as, for example, a pneumatically powered or combustion-powered nail-driving tool. Besides the fragment being unacceptable from an aesthetic standpoint, the fragment prevents the nail from being fully driven into the workpiece.
A surprisingly simple solution to the flagging problem in connection with ring-shanked, threaded, barbed, and other special-purpose nails, which may be tape-collated, is disclosed in Shelton U.S. Pat. No. 4,836,372.
There has been a need, to which this invention is addressed, for a comparably simple solution to the flagging problem in connection with wire nails besides those special-purpose nails of primary concern in the Shelton patent noted above.